Neurophysiological Impact of Prescribed and Self-selected Music Intervention on Stress, Burnout, and Sleep in Surgeons-a 7-Tesla fMRI and Actigraphy Randomized Controlled Pilot Study

Study Summary Sleep deprivation is a serious safety hazard in acute-stress, high-autonomy, high-immediacy, and high-risk work environments, where small errors in judgment or motor performance can deleteriously impact clinical performance and patient outcomes. A reported 65% of acute-care physicians suffer from acute and chronic sleep deprivation, and 50-70% of emergency-care physicians have reported symptoms of burnout. Sleep-deprived surgeons performed surgical tasks less competently and more slowly than intoxicated surgeons. Prior functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have linked sleep deprivation to an impaired ability to down-regulate negative emotions. Music serves as an effective and powerful modulator of human stress responses, effectively alleviating psychophysiological stress, enhancing functional connectivity in the emotional centers in the brain, and improving sleep by dynamically modulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, autonomic nervous system (ANS) and heart rate variability (HRV).

The central hypothesis is that listening to validated stress-reducing music containing defined compositional elements of relaxation will enhance sleep quality and/or quantity, reduce self-reported psychological stress, and mitigate burnout in health care providers. The study aims to test this hypothesis by measuring pre-, intra-, and post- intervention changes in brain activation, functional connectivity, and neurotransmitter releases using 7-Tesla fMRI; in qualitative and quantitative sleep patterns using clinically validated actigraphy straps; and in self-reported psychological stress and burnout using validated surveys. The study will provide essential data for a formal intervention to improve bedtime routines among healthcare providers prone to acute and chronic stress, sleep deprivation, depression and burnout.

The novelty of the proposed study is threefold: (1) use of high-resolution 7-Tesla fMRI technology to visualize neurological changes in the brain during and after the defined music intervention; (2) use of state-of-the-art actigraphy to qualitatively and quantitatively measure music-induced changes in slow wave and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep; and (3) use of sophisticated and precise repertoire-selection methodology developed by expert musicians on the team and aimed at increasing the reproducibility and scientific rigor in future music intervention studies. Gathering the team's interdisciplinary expertise of concert musicians, a Grammy Award-nominated composer, acute-care physicians, surgeons, and sleep experts at Houston Methodist Hospital, the investigators seek to measure the impact of defined musical intervention on sleep, stress and burnout using repertoire ranging from the Baroque period to 21st Century and containing a combination of 16 universal Compositional Elements of Relaxation previously extracted and evaluated by the team.

The long-term goal is to implement and disseminate defined and scientifically reproducible stress-reducing and sleep-enhancing music interventions at the clinic and policy level that may alleviate psychophysiological stress and reduce the severity and prevalence of sleep deprivation and burnout in health care providers.

Purpose of the Study / Objectives